Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Nearly a month ago,
India were playing their final group fixture in the 2015 Cartlon Mid Tri-series
here against England, where they went down by three wickets. They did not make
it to the finals of the 3 Nation Competition and was criticised severely.

The other team
England had a win against Scotland. Moeen
Ali's all-round performance (128 & 2/47) and Steven Finn (3/26) helped
England defend their strong total of 303 against Scotland, bowling them out for
184 giving Eoin Morgan their first
points of the World Cup 2015. At the same time, comprehensive victories over Pakistan and South Africa has given India the unlikely top spot in a tough
Group B of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, and - as they quietly trundle into
Perth for their next two matches - it has left the team's management with the
pleasant headache of looking at players who have warmed the bench so far.

So far only Indians
have made double hundreds in ODI and today came the fastest ODI double 100 from
‘who else’ Chris Gayle. This was the
fifth double-century in ODIs, and it came exactly five years after Sachin
Tendulkar first reached the landmark on 24th Feb. Once a year is too
frequent a rate for the milestone to be special any more, and since it was
Gayle, it answered the question of when rather than if. Gayle finished on 215 from 147 balls. He hit
10 fours and sent 16 sixes flying over the straight boundary or into a group of
fans dressed as a coven of witches beyond the midwicket boundary. At the other
end, unnoticed, Marlon Samuels made his highest ODI score and played second
fiddle in a partnership of 372, the highest for any wicket in ODIs.

Reports confirm
that PCB has asked Moin Khan, Pakistan's
chief selector and a member of the tour selection committee, to return home
after he was reportedly seen in a casino two days before the team's clash
against West Indies in Christchurch. The board has also launched an official
investigation against him.The PCB
chairman, said strict action will be taken against Moin should he be found
guilty.

You don’t see
players outside the player’s enclosure - but Scotland's reserve wicketkeeper Craig
Wallet was doing just that as his team was playing England at the Hagley Oval
on Monday . TOi reports that he was seen
in a Tui beer orange tee-shirt, looking to catch the ball with one hand and win
a pie of the million New Zealand dollars that are on offer throughout the tournament. He wasn't sitting with the team because he is
not a part of the 15, but he is training with the team and will also travel to
Dunedin on Tuesday for the Afghanistan game.
Just that his teammates didn't give him the chance through the afternoon
to become a millionaire!

Sachin Tendulkar
has backed the cause of Associate nations' participation in the Cricket World
Cup. ICC (International Cricket Council) has proposed a 10-team World Cup in
2019 unlike the 2015 edition where 14 teams are participating. The 2019 edition
will have the top eight teams qualifying directly while two more teams will
join them after a qualifying round. The move has met with a lot of criticism
from supporters of nations like Ireland, Afghanistan amongst others. Tendulkar,
the brand ambassador of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, was of the view that
playing against top teams regularly would only help the smaller teams.

ICC sees the change
in number of teams as a way of making the World Cup more competitive and
ensuring that each match remains competitive. On the flip side, there has been
argument that it would actually discourage the smaller teams. Tendulkar was
keen on the top teams playing against Associate nations on a more regular
basis. The minnows have so far made good
impact in this World Cup.

The Chappell-Hadlee
Trophy returns in the ICC World Cup encounter between New Zealand and Australia
to be played at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday. The ODI trophy, named after
the legendary cricket families in Australia and New Zealand, was last played
during the 2011 World Cup in Nagpur. Both teams have played just one ODI since
then - in the 2013 Champions Trophy - but due to an "oversight", as
admitted by New Zealand Cricket CEO David White, the match, which eventually
ended in a washout, wasn't given the status of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.